Dry Ice Blasting News

Continued from Home - Dry Ice Blasting - Blasting Beat - Unusual Dry Ice Blasting Experiences

Steve Sullivan, Area Sales Manager, started with Continental Carbonic in August of 2002. Steve has maintained great customer service and successfully opened many new dry ice and dry ice blasting accounts. Steve holds the distinction of having his photo on our Continental Carbonic fleet of trucks. He brings his unique "viewpoint" to our dry ice blasting article. (If you are a fan of the show "Dirty Jobs", you are sure to enjoy this article.)

"Much has been written about some of the traditional uses of dry ice blasting. These include printing press cleaning, mold remediation/fire restoration and general plant maintenance. However, once in a while, an application for dry ice blasting is uncovered that can fall into a "non-traditional" category. In my experiences, these applications can create interesting and usually humorous experiences. Following are a few of the most unusual dry ice blast cleaning applications and experiences that I'd like to share.

Dog Food Plant - I demonstrated and sold a dry ice blasting machine to a dog food plant. They were cleaning dry dog food which had settled onto the machinery. The dry ice blasting machine was effective in removing the debris. The interesting part: driving home 6 hours smelling like dog food. My dachshund followed me around the house when I got home.

Steel Mill - My first major dry ice machine rental was to a contractor at a steel mill. They were cleaning the inside of a tar decanter. They were dry ice blasting 3 shifts for 3 days. The challenge came when they had problems with one of the machines and needed service. Picture me laying in the mud (it had rained) dry ice blasting on a machine surrounded by the fire, smoke and airborne black dust at 1 o'clock in the morning. I came home smelling like tar. I slept on the couch that weekend.

Beef Processing Plant - This wasn't that unusual of a process, however, it was my first visit to a beef processing plant. They wanted to use dry ice blasting to clean dust off the plant ceiling. I was certain I was in for an experience when my contact asked me if I had a strong stomach as he didn't want me throwing up or passing out when I got to the plant. Fortunately, I was fine, but it was hard to concentrate on the ceiling job when my eyes were constantly being pulled to what was happening on the plant floor.

Filter Paper Processor - I did a demonstration at a filter paper processor. I was dry ice blasting a 20-foot long stainless steel roller with a buildup of white resin. I dry ice blasted for about 5 minutes and the process was very effective. Life got interesting when my contact told me the roller was useless to him unless the whole roller was clean. Two hours of dry ice blasting later, I had it clean. Fortunately, the company bought a dry ice blasting machine and a lot of dry ice.

Power Plant - A customer rented a dry ice blasting machine to clean the inside of a water tank in a power plant. The tank was on the 17th floor in the plant. We hoisted the dry ice blasting machine and the dry ice and made it up to the job site. I had forgotten something in my van and went down the elevator to get it, as it was holding up the job. Coming back up, I wasn't so lucky with the elevator. There was a long, long line. After 10 minutes of waiting, I figured I would take the stairs. How high could 17 floors of stairs be, anyway? Ten huffing and puffing minutes later, I knew...having nearly lost my lunch on the way. The machine part (and my legs) made it through and the job continued smoothly.

Mold Remediation - This is a very typical dry ice blasting application, but a very non-typical experience. We were dry ice blasting mold out of a basement of a house with a remediation firm. We hooked up the dry ice blasting machine and began to dry ice blast. I watched the project manager, who had no dust mask on as he was dry ice blasting so I figured I could do without. Bad move. I coughed like a 2-pack a day smoker the whole next day. My wife was ready to kill me.

Mysterious "Tank" Cleaning - I've saved the best for last. I received a telephone call from a contractor. He was talking to "MSD", one of his customers, about dry ice blasting the interior of some tanks. He said they had a buildup of sludge that needed to be removed. I asked him to describe the sludge. He said it was soft and fairly pliable and asked if I could do a dry ice blasting demonstration on it. Well, first of all, I wasn't going to get into a tank and second of all, I was starting to figure this out. I pressed him for more information about this mysterious "sludge" and finally asked him what "MSD" stood for. He paused and finally said "It's the Metropolitan Sewer District". I asked him a question to which I knew the answer - what was the sludge? You all know the answer."